The Royal We

Image from: http://www.kingscountygeneralstore.com/storage
There are some jobs where we, us and our are synonymous with the department, office and the company. There are others where using we is forbidden. It all depends on your responsibilities and the company’s perspective.

Obviously if your job responsibilities are to speak on behalf of the firm, you should always use we. In this case, we is a collective point of view.

The most important way to figure out whether or not you work in a royal we office is to see how your supervisor handles the word. Does he use I when talking about his position and the company when talking about the firm? Or does he use we, us and our? As in “our resources” versus “the company’s resources.”

When employees use we it makes them feel connected, like they are a part of something bigger. If the company founder uses we in all of his speeches and correspondence with his employees, but no one else in the company uses we when talking about where they work, this cold be a red flag that the employees don’t feel a sense of ownership or that they have a voice.